With the release of Netflix‘s Jailbreak: Love on the Run, Casey White’s prison escape is making the rounds again. Casey got the help of his “wife” to escape confinement so they could live a normal life together, but it all ended in tragedy.
Casey had a long history of criminal record as he was arrested for beating his brother with an axe sledgehammer in 2012. He admitted in 2020 to the stabbing death of 59-year-old Connie Ridgeway and was charged with two counts of capital murder. On April 29, 2022, Casey escaped from prison with the help of Vicky White, an official who worked at the prison and was regarded as a “mother figure” in her workplace. The two sparked up a relationship while he was doing time, and devised a plan to escape so that they could live their life together.
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The couple escaped successfully and within 11 days, they were being chased by police in a high pursuit. The couple ended up crashing their car and Vicky died from a self-inflicted gun wound. Casey pleaded guilty to escape in exchange for prosecutors dropping a felony murder charge involving Vicky White’s death and agreed to the maximum sentence of life without parole. “We just wanted a new life together because she knew the truth. I can handle the truth because I know who I am,” Casey said in a hearing. “I chose this road. It’s cost me my life and freedom.”
Where is Casey White now?
Casey White is currently serving a life sentence at the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Jefferson, Alabama. He is currently serving his sentence for his first-degree escape charge which is concurrent with the 75-year sentence from his prior convictions. He will be eligible for parole in 2081, when he will be 98 years old. As of May 1, 2024, 13 inmates have died in the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in the past year as nine have died from “natural disease” and three have died of unreported causes. In 2023, 27 men died.
“I feel like the most hated man in the world. I loved Vicky and I wouldn’t drag her name through the mud for anyone in this courtroom,” he said during a sentencing hearing on June 8, 2023. “Vicky took me out because she said, ‘Right was right. Wrong is wrong.’ First person to show me affection. First person to give me a hug in six years.”
As to what the motives were for the escape, Vicky and Casey thought they would also escape the consequences. He referred to Vicky as his wife, though they weren’t married legally. “We thought we’d never get caught,” he said at the end of the documentary. We thought we had enough cash money. Went up to everything up there just to find us a place up there… and just get a little rinky-dink trailer up there…. for 250, 300 dollars a month, and pay them up for a year right there, then pay the electric bill for a year and just stayed and hunkered down up there.”
In July 2023, prosecutors decided not to go forward with the capital murder case against Casey White for the 2015 murder of Connie Ridgeway. Her adult children, Austin and Cameron Williams, supported the trial not going forward since he was already serving his prison escape sentence.
